Will You Follow Jesus into the Fight?
- Message Excerpt by
- Scripture: Matthew 26:45 Topic: Evangelism
Audio Transcript
The last scene is Judas showing up in Matthew 26:45–46. And it sheds light on the whole scene for me to ask this question: He’s just found them sleeping three times. They’re asleep when he comes, he sees the torches off in the distance. He sees Judas. Jesus knows what’s coming. What’s he going to do? What’s he going to say? Is he going to say to Peter, James, and John, “My adversaries are coming. May the Lord keep you and bless you. I will see you later. Go.”
“Jesus has gone ahead of you. He’s going to fight with you. He means to have you at his side.”
That’s not what he said. He said, “The Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise. Let’s go” (Matthew 26:45). “Let’s go.” That’s amazing. You want these guys to go with you. You think they’re going to go with you. They didn’t go with him, but he said they should. So we’re going to walk out of here in just a few minutes, right, and you’re heading into your Gethsemane.
Sooner or later, something very significant like this is coming, and Jesus has gone ahead of you. He’s going to fight with you. He means to have you at his side. I think that’s what Gethsemane means. “I want you at my side while I fight my battles. I do the decisive work. You don’t save sinners. I save sinners, but I save them through your mouth. So I want you with me.”
So instead of saying, “See you, I’m going to go do the work.” He says, “The Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise. Let’s go.”
I’m going to Minneapolis and you’re going to London or wherever you live, and we’re going with him. And if you stumble, he never did. He never did. And he never will. And he keeps saying, “Come on, let’s do this.”
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